System for the preginning of cotton



June 28, 1949. J. J. WALLACE SYSTEM FOR THE, PREGINNING OF COTTON Filed June 18, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 28, 1949. J; J, WALLACE 2,474,642

SYSTEM FOR THE 4PREGINNING OF COTTON Filed June 18, 1946 -3 Sheets-Sheet 3 scribed. When in broken line position, it blocks conduit 8 and shunts the cotton into conduit I2.

The conduit I2 at its lower end divides into two bran-ches 25 and 26, the former conducting the cotton through path B, and the latter by way of path C. A valve 21 at the mouth of conduit I2 controls the selective flow of cotton through one or the other of these branches.

Branch conduit 25 leads to the cleaning units I4 and I5, unit` I4 being a vacuum condenser in which vacuum is maintained by a suction pipe I6, communicating with a fan chamber I1 containing a suction fan (not shown), the latter discharging into a trench containing a trash conveyor 2 I.

The unit I5 is a multiple drum cleaner, also having a drying and conditioning function., since hot air is blown into it through conduits 22 and 23. The drum cleaner has an underlying dust and trash hopper 24, which disch-arge into the fan chamber I1, and eventually into the trench 20. The cotton is elevated in the drum cleaner and discharges from the upper end thereof into the hopper 9.

From the cleaning units I4 and I5, the cotton passes to the hopper 9, from which it is normally drawn into the supermultiple extractor I0, passing therefrom to the gin 6.

When the valve 21 is swung to a position blocking branch conduit 25 and opening branch conduit 26, the cotton is diverted so as to pass first through the multiple extractor 28 and cleaner 29, and then by way of conduit 30 to the condenser I4, and serially through the cleaning instrumentalities I4 and I5 to the hopper 9 and normally through the supermultiple extractor IIJ to the gin 6.

It is to be understood that the entire cleaning system, beginning with the conduit II which leaves the distributor, and including the serially connected cleaning apparatus units which constitute the alternative paths A, B and C, are individual to the gin 6 and duplicated for each gin in the battery of gins, and it is emphasized that since only a small stream of cotton suicient to supply a single gin is fed through the conduit I I and through the cleaning units in any one of the selected paths, the cotton will be cleaned more thoroughly than it is possible to clean a stream of cotton large enough to be later distributed to a plurality of gins.

For one reason or another, as for instance to clean the roll box, it is necessary from time to time to temporarily stop one of the gins of the battery, necessitating cutting oli the flow of cotton to that gin. The following arrangement permits this to be done without interrupting the operation of the cleaning system. Each of the hoppers 9 is connected to a common conveyor trough 3I, having a screw conveyor 32, which leads back to a storage bin 33. A gate valve 34 controls the outlet from each hopper. When in the broken line position shown in Figure 3, it directs the discharge of cotton from the hopper to the supermultiple extractor I0 and gin 6. When it is in the full line position shown, it blocks the passage to the supermultiple extractor and opens the hopper to the conveyor 32, so that the cotton destined for the interrupted gin is then discharged into the bin 33. This may be cotton from conduit 8, which has only passed through the preliminary cleaning and conditioning apparatus I and 3, or it may be cotton which has been processed in the cleaning apparatus constituting paths B and C. When the stopped ,Y giufs again put into operation, theilow of cot- 4 ton thereto i's resumed simply by turning the' gate valve 34 again to its broken line position.

At any desired time the cotton in the bin may be returned to the cleaning system by way of a conduit 35, which divides into branches 36 and 31, the former leading to the preliminary multiple extractor I, and the latter to the distributor. A gate valve 38 at the mouth of conduit 35 may be turned to direct the cotton into either of the branch conduits 36 and 31. Thus the cotton from the bin may be completely reprocessed, or alternatively, be made to by-pass the preliminary processing apparatus and go direct to the distributor 5, from which it may be selectively sent through any one of the paths A, B and C in the manner previously set forth,

The movement of cotton throughout the system from one apparatus unit to another is effected, aside from the mechanical conveyor herein disclosed, by a conventional air suction system which it has not been considered necessary to fully illustrate or describe.

It will be understood that the invention does not lie in the specific cleaning and conditioning instrumentalities per se, any or all of which may be old in the art, but it resides in their novel arrangement, and the manner in which they are connected, and in which the traverse of cotton therethrough is selectively controlled whereby it may be selectively subjected to various degrees of cleaning according to the condition of the seed cotton.

Referring to the flow sheet, the following apparatus therein designated may be exemplified by the apparatus disclosed in the following patents:

Multiple extractor I, multiple extractor 28-Patent 1,953,545, Jeffrey J. Wallace, granted April 3, 1934.

Drier 3-Patent 1,707,929, Charles A. Bennett,

granted April 2, 1929.

Cleaner 29-Patent 2,235,469,

granted March 18, 1941.

Condenser I4-Patent 1,081,111, T. S. Grimes,

granted December 9, 1913.

Drum cleaner I5-Patent 1,369,716, Grover C.

Stacey, granted February 22, 1921.

supermultiple extractor Ill-Patent 1,967,567,

Jeffrey J. Wallace, granted July 22, 1934.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A system for the pre-ginning processing of cotton comprising a battery of a plurality of gins, a distributor for distributing cotton to each of the gins of said battery, an extractor and drier common to said gins anterior to said distributor discharging into said distributor, and a series of processing instrumentalities individual to each gin, between said distributor and gin through which cotton passes to the gin, said series including an extractor adjacent said gin, an intermediate group including a vacuum condenser and drum cleaner, and a group at the head of said series including an extractor and cleaner, a conduit for each gin at spaced points in the length of said distributor for supplying cotton to the gins, said conduit having branches .communicating with said series respectively between said adjacent extractor and said intermediate group, between said intermediate group and head group, and anterior to said head group, and selectively operable means for determining the flow of cotton into any one of said branches whereby it ispassed to said gin through said adjacent extractor only, serially. through said intermediate group and said.

Jeffrey J. Wallace,

adjacent extractor, or serially through said head group, intermediate group, and adjacent extractor.

2. A system for the pre-ginning processing of cotton comprising a battery of a plurality of gins, a distributor for distributing cotton to each of the gins of said battery, an extractor and drier common to said gins anterior to said distributor discharging into said distributor, and a series of processing instrumentalities individual to @said gins between said distributor and gin through which cotton travels to the gin, said series including an extractor adjacent said gin, an intermediate group including a vacuum condenser and drum cleaner, and a group at the head of said series including an extractor and cleaner, a conduit for each gin at spaced points in the length of said distributor, sized to pass a cotton stream equal to the capacity of a single gin, said conduit having branches communicating with said series respectively between said adjacent extractor and said intermediate group, between said intermediate group and head group, and anterior to said head group, and selectively operable means for determining the ow of cotton into any one of said branches whereby only enough cotton to feed one gin is passed to said gin through said `adjacent extractor only, serially through said intermediate group and adjacent extractor, or serially through said head group, intermediate group and adjacent extractor.

3. A system for the pre-ginning processing of cotton comprising a. battery of a plurality of gins, a distributor for distributing cotton to each of the gins of said battery, a preliminary extractor and drier common to said gins anterior to said distributor discharging into said distributor, and a series of processing instrumentalities individual to each gin between said distributor and gin through which cotton passes to the gin, said series including an extractor adjacent said gin, a hopper next anterior thereto discharging into said gin, an intermediate group including a vacuum condenser and drum cleaner, and a group at the head of said series including an extractor and cleaner, a conduit for each gin at spaced points in the length of said distributor for supplying cotton to the gins, said conduit having branches communicating with the said series respectively at said hopper, at a point between said head and intermediate groups, and at a point anterior to said head group, said intermediate group discharging into said hopper, selectively operable means for determining the flow of cotton into any one of said branches whereby it is passed to said gin by way of said hopper, alternatively through said adjacent extractor only, serially through said intermediate group and said adjacent extractor, or serially through said head group, intermediate group and 'adjacent extractor, a storage bin, a conveyor common to all said hoppers leading to said storage bin, and a valve in each hopper 'op- 6 erable to divert the cotton flow'. away from said gin into said conveyor.

4. System as claimed in claim 3, including a conduit from said bin with branches leading to said preliminary extractor and to said distributor, and a valve in said conduit operable to alternatively divert cotton flowing from said bin through said conduit, into either of said branches.

5. A system for the pre-ginning processing of cotton comprising a battery of a plurality of gins, a distributor for distributing cotton to each of the gins of said battery, an extractor and drier common to said gins anterior to said distributor discharging into said distributor, and a series of processing instrumentalities individual to each gin, between said distributor and gin through which cotton passes to the gin, said series including an extractor adjacent said gin and a hopper next anterior thereto discharging into said gin, an intermediate group, and a group at the head of said series, a conduit for each gin at spaced points in the length of said distributor for supplying cotton to the gins, said conduit having branches communicating with said series, respectively at said hopper, at a point between said head and intermediate group, and at a point anterior to said head group, said intermediate group discharging into said hopper, selectively operable means for determining the flow of cotton into any one of said branches whereby it is passed to said gin by way of said hopper alternatively through said adjacent extractor only, serially through said intermediate group and said adjacent extractor, or serially through said head group, intermediate group and adjacent extractor, a storage bin, `a conveyor common to all said hoppers leading to said storage bin, a valve for each hopper operable to divert the cotton ow away from said gin into said conveyor, a discharge from said storage bin having branches connected to said extractor anterior Vto said distributor, and to said distributor, and means operable for directing the cotton flow from said bin to said extractor anterior to the distributor, or to the distributor.

JEFFREY J. WALLACE.

REFERENCES CITED The following referenlces are of record in the ille of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,714,953 Hancock May 28, 1929 1,885,656 Wallace Nov. 1, 1932 1,967,567 Wallace July 24, 1934 1,987,241 Mackenzie Jan. 8, 1935 2,009,047 Grimes July 23, 1935 2,015,954 Mitchell Oct. 1, 1935 2,102,408 Deems Dec. 14, 1937 2,129,630 Streun Sept. 6, 1938 2,137,512 Steinhauer Nov. 22, 1938 

